to ask how you penalise your DCs for losing stuff at school?

[Pannacotta07]

There is something lost almost every day. Protractor, compass, gym shorts, shoes, raincoats... The list goes on. Sometimes they turn up, more often than that they don't! I tried making DS (9) pay for them but this really does not faze him as he never spends money anyway. I am now restricting his screen time or making him go to bed earlier. What do you do???

Make them go without.

Speak to the teacher as well, this was DS1 at primary and I went through many punishments. When I spoke to the teacher quite a few parents had been in and the school was looking into it, it turned out a few boys where popping in at break times and removing stuff from bags as a joke. The fact that they do not turn up suggests they could be in another pupils bag.

I'd do my best to put him in a position where he gets in trouble at school for it. Your son's teacher should support you in this, because they're at an age where they are supposed to be gaining independence and part of the process is losing/forgetting things.

I don't penalise them for losing stuff

Having said that it doesn't happen too often, perhaps if it happened a lot I would rethink my policy

Simple if lost you manage without or if essential dc buys very cheap replacement with pocket money. If taken due to bullying thats a different matter.

Only the natural consequence of having to do without the item until it is convenient for me to replace it.

Start early!

I made me DS pay for a new jumper when he was in year 3 - he's not lost once since.

Mine do chores in order to earn the money to pay for the replacement.

Did it have his name on?

Tell hhim his pocket money is to be saved up for his driving lessons for when he is 17, that he'll probably need a lot if he keeps forgetting things, and show him how expensive they are from a good school. Take him shopping for protractor, compass etc. and use his pocket money to buy it. Use up his time and attention as well as his money. Time he would rather be doing something else. Name new stuff.

For sports kit, insist he goes to look through the lost property for his stuff. If you can, don't get new as his things may turn up. Try to find out how it got lost. (DD 'loaned' an expensive sports top to a friend and forgot about it, and we only got it back years later, when she had grown out of it.) If you do have to buy more, explain he will have to help with extra chores at home to help pay for it.

In future years, send them off with cheap stuff the first week or three and only use more expensive things at home, for 'good' and as back up if something is lost. If they have new expensive kit and clothes on the first day, it attracts the wrong kind of attention, ime.